Rufus Wainwright Talks Family Christmas Show, Opera

"There's no suicides or wars or babies being poisoned or anything."

Spending the holidays with your family can be a bit trying-- to say the least-- if you'd rather not revisit a treasure trove of bad memories. But if your flock consisted of a bunch of Canadian folkie legends, some cool young kids who make some fine music of their own, and an extended crew including Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Emmylou Harris and that Jimmy Fallon joker, your Yule season might be a tad bit merrier, yes? That would appear to be the idea behind the "McGarrigle Christmas Hour", an annual variety show put on by longstanding folk duo the McGarrigle Sisters and rounded out by friends and family alike.

Singer/composer Rufus Wainwright is the son of McGarrigle Sister Kate McGarrigle, and he'll join the Christmas Hour when it hits New York's Carnegie Hall December 10, sharing the stage with his mother and aunt Anna, his sister Martha, aunt Sloan Wainwright, Linda Thompson and kids Teddy and Kami, the aforementioned Reed, Anderson, Harris, and Fallon, and drag queen Justin Bond. Such a wild bunch could lead to some standard family dysfunction, but as Rufus tells it, a little dysfunction is kind of the point.

We spoke to Rufus Wainwright earlier this week about what to expect from the big holiday show, what growing up in a musical family was like around Christmastime, and the looming debut of his first opera, Prima Donna.

Side note: The whole McGarrigle/Wainwright family (minus Rufus' father Loudon Wainwright III) will appear on "The Martha Stewart Show" on Tuesday, December 9 to "bake ski biscuits with Martha," according to Rufus' website. That should be...interesting. He promises, "I'm premiering a brand new song called 'Christmas Is for Kids' - it's about how jealous I am when Martha gets more presents than I do. 'It's easier to buy stuff for girls': THAT'S SUCH BULLSHIT!!!!!!"

Pitchfork: I guess my first question is: Just an hour?

RW: [laughs] No, that's false advertising. But it's a good thing, because I think if one did advertise the true length-- which is around two-and-a-half hours-- people would immediately be dubious, because of the attention span of our world right now. But once the show starts, it seems like even less than an hour, because it's so great.Pitchfork: A lot of folks from your clan are showing up for the big party. Was Christmas always a big thing in the McGarrigle/Wainwright household?RW: Yeah. I mean, none of us are particularly religious or anything, but Canada, and Quebec specifically, just up North, is pretty idyllic in terms of postcard situations. Or Christmas card situations, I should say. And really, perhaps second to Scandinavia or something, it's the most sort of home-y place you can be during the holidays.Pitchfork: So a lot of donning ridiculous sweaters, different nogs...RW: Yeah, lots of sweaters, lots of snowballs, lots of sweet cookies and stuff. It's really fabulous up there.

Pitchfork: Is everyone getting together and rehearsing, or is it more off the cuff?

RW: Yeah, we have a few days of rehearsal, but don't be surprised if things shift suddenly during the show. My mother [Kate McGarrigle] and my aunt [Anna McGarrigle], they're famous for really having an unexpected evening, you know. They really don't like to... sand down the edges, you know? They don't like things too rehearsed, basically, which makes it funner for the audience, 'cause you know that it's all really happening [laughs]. And so do we [laughs].

Pitchfork: It's a pretty impressive crew you've got lined up, even beyond the family. Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Emmylou Harris. Are these people you've known for a really long time?

RW: Yeah, I guess the first veteran would be Emmylou Harris. My mother and aunt have written songs for her and sung with her for years on the folk rock/country circuit. She's almost a kind of honorary McGarrigle sister herself, so it started with her. In fact, I think her covering my mother's songs put me through boarding school. [laughs] And then Lou and Laurie are sort of newer friends, I mean from the last, what, 10 years? [laughs] And Lou especially is sort of this grand elder statesman of the rock scene, who one would find hard to sort of run into in the music world, because he's so sort of engaged and interested in what's going on [with his own projects]. And then Jimmy Fallon is my sister's friend-- though I've known him for years-- but he's a real buddy with Martha [Wainwright]. He's sort of the latest addition, which means we've known him for about five years. [laughs] We really know the people we work with. We're all very good friends.Pitchfork: So what can people expect, other than the unexpected?

RW: Well, I think you should expect a multilingual evening, 'cause for one thing there will be a lot of French songs, and then of course English songs. But also, my boyfriend Jörn [Weisbrodt] is singing as well, and he's German, so we're gonna pop in a little bit of German here and there. And maybe even some Hebrew as well, because we are in New York. So it's a multinational affair.

Expect a lot of banter and a lot of comedy. We're definitely keen on transporting a lot of these over-done melodies in an enjoyable way. [laughs] I have to be honest with you, I'm not a huge Christmas music fan. I basically do this because otherwise my mother wouldn't talk to me, but that being said, we all make up for it. There is an element of sort of torturing the children, and having them rebel in certain ways to make up for the strain. So Martha and I, you kind of see us revert [laughs] into our former selves, toddler selves. So that's always interesting. Just watch us be tortured by our mother! It's great!

Pitchfork: And there's going to be a taping the day after the concert?

RW: Well, part of this evening is also a cancer benefit, because my mother's been battling cancer for the last almost three years. The money will go to the McGill Cancer Research facility up in Canada, where she's being treated. One of the perks of buying an $800 ticket-- which are going quite swiftly, considering the financial crisis and everything, and there are still some available!-- you get a gift bag, and also the following day, we're taping the show at the Knitting Factory during the afternoon. You get to come and watch the taping of the show, and be part of a McGarrigle/Wainwright movie. And it goes to a good cause.

Pitchfork: And that's for a DVD release?RW: Yeah, hopefully. We're even trying to get it released before the holidays. So I think people are gonna be able to pre-order it and stuff.

RW: Yeah, Prima Donna. It's premiering in July in Manchester, England. It's part of the Manchester International Festival. At the moment, I'm staring at a computer screen with trombone and celeste parts, and losing my eyesight, basically. [laughs]Pitchfork: What stage are you at in the process of creating it?

RW: It's been about two or three years that I've really been whittling it down to its beautiful form. I'm essentially at the gates of heaven, for me, musically. I've been a huge opera fan since I was 14, and now it's time to pay the piper, and really give back to that form of music all that it's given me over the years. So I'm putting all of my emotion into this one.Pitchfork: What's it all about?

RW: It's called Prima Donna, and it's a day in the life of a fading opera star. It involves the press as well! There's an evil journalist! [laughs] Well, actually, he's not an evil journalist, that's the wrong way to put it. There's an evil butler, and a very flirtatious journalist, I wanted to say. There's a flirtatious journalist, which can be an evil journalist if you're tired. So it's a very kind of Straussian, subtle, drawing room situation. There's no suicides or wars or babies being poisoned or anything.Pitchfork: Sounds excellent.

RW: Yeah, it'll be nice. A lot of beautiful music-- I mean, a lot of arias and duets. It's very, very accessible.

Pitchfork: Is this something that you see maybe taking over your pop leanings?RW: I don't see that happening in the near future. I mean, I have a bunch of other records that I want to make, so I've gotta do that first. But I'm happy that I've started now because, in all honesty-- though I think this opera is gonna be a pretty major attempt, and impressive at least in its dedication-- I personally don't believe that you hit your stride until your second or third opera, if you look at the history of the composers.

Janá?ek wrote his first opera when he was 50, which is called Jen?fa, which is an amazing opera-- I'd like to write a great opera when I'm 50 [Apparently, Jen?fa was actually Janá?ek's third opera, though it is considered his first "major" opera. - Ed.]. So I'm giving myself about 20 years. I know you thought I was 20. [laughs]Pitchfork: You're doing just a little bit of touring in the late winter and early spring. What do you plan to focus on, song-wise?

RW: Well, I'm at the point now where I can really delve into a kind of plethora of experiences, whether it's Judy [Garland] or my albums or movie work, so I try to represent a full plate of my history for the audience each night I play a solo show. It really depends on the city, the night, and the state of my emotional compass.